I have finnally saved up enough cash to buy an all tube bass amp. It seems that many guitar stores don't have the high end amps in stock but can order them.I have read all the reviews on the top brands (Orange, Mesa Boogie, Fender...others). From the reviews I have narrowed down my search to Orange AD200, Fender Bassman, and the new Mesa Boogie tube amps yet to be released to the public(prodigy and stratigy). I would hate to purchase one of these without trying them out first, but the avalibilty of these amps are hard to find. Can anyone shed some light on any of these amps performance and tone camparisions? I know the Mesa amps have yet to be heard. any input would be helpful....
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all tube bass amp avalibility
- Thread starter countrybassman
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Mr. Foxen
Commercial User
"Orange, Mesa Boogie, Fender." are all pretty low end valve amps. Same sort of money gets you better quality amps, the cost of the quality is saved in the marketing, hence the price being similar but you haven't heard of them. Top brand maybe, but brand does not -= quality, and it matters more with valve amps, because they are obsolete tech, and as such don't agree so well with modern production tehchniques as modern amp design. Matamp is my generic recommendation, especially as you mention Orange being front runner, pretty much a case of Orange is to Matamp what Squier is to Fender. Some Squiers have nice features that Fenders don't, but Fender is still the daddy.
Or you could look into a hand wired amp from a smaller, more boutique builder like Ben Verellen or our own Nick Dunwich... Depending on what your playing I think people tend to like the Orange AD200B, but if I were dropping that money I would look into Matamp or one of aforementioned custom builders where you'd be able to have it build to the specs that you are looking for.
I would look for a vintage SVT. The early eighties SVT's are great too. The SVT II non pro is a player as well, though they don't seem to come up on the used market all that often. These amps are versatile, robust, and loud! Also, for a decent amp tech, they are pretty easy to service.
Mr. Foxen
Commercial User
SVTs are pretty low on my list for ease of servicing. Ampegs in general are on my don't even bring them to me list, the old ones aren't that bad, but far from ideal.
Norwich, eh... When i lived in that part of the world there was LaSalle Music in West Hartford, Guitars Unlimited in New haven. Seems like there was another store down in the new haven area that was good but it has been years...
Dumb question - what do you expect to get out of an all tube bass amp ? Are you looking for power tube compression ? Grind ? Airy cleans ?
In spite of some of what you can read on this site, the gap between a good hybrid and a good tube amp has significantly narrowed. My vintage rig is an old Music Man, SS pre, 6L6's for power. 100 watts, ridiculously loud through 2 15's - not huge stage or arena volume by any means but way louder than you would expect. More like a 300 watt SS amp... Call it medium sized club with a reasonable drummer and a couple of Fender Deluxes... Still my MB-Fusion get's a ton more work. I leave the old tub'ish monster in the studio with a Heil PR-40 sitting in front of it. One day I'll do away with that head and find an old Showman Amp or maybe a cherry V4 ...
Dumb question - what do you expect to get out of an all tube bass amp ? Are you looking for power tube compression ? Grind ? Airy cleans ?
In spite of some of what you can read on this site, the gap between a good hybrid and a good tube amp has significantly narrowed. My vintage rig is an old Music Man, SS pre, 6L6's for power. 100 watts, ridiculously loud through 2 15's - not huge stage or arena volume by any means but way louder than you would expect. More like a 300 watt SS amp... Call it medium sized club with a reasonable drummer and a couple of Fender Deluxes... Still my MB-Fusion get's a ton more work. I leave the old tub'ish monster in the studio with a Heil PR-40 sitting in front of it. One day I'll do away with that head and find an old Showman Amp or maybe a cherry V4 ...
when you say Fender, Mesa and Orange are low end tube amps, then what is considered Top Line? For instance, if I liked Fender Bassman 300, what would be its equal in better built amps? You mentioned Matamp is Oranges equal. So what would be Matamps Equal be to Oranges AD 200? Like you say, that kind of money spent, I didn't relize the good and bad of my decision on an all tube head. (I am playing a Sadowsky 5 string Metro into Eden 2-12cab and 2-10cab. Play mostly Classic Rock - some Alt-Rock) thanks for all your input
if you like the fender 300 then just ignore all the cork sniffing and get drunk on some tasty tube tone. that amp is a beast!
There's also Reeves and a handful of other hand built amps.
Exactly! Tone is what decides for me.
depending on your power needs The Bassman 100T and super Bassman are terrific sounding rigs. Two distinctly different tone stacks on each amp. very sweet indeed. Do yourself a favor and don't rule them out before trying. I have been extremely happy with my 100T
Mr. Foxen
Commercial User
Don't really think you grasped what I was saying about Orange and Matamp at all. Matamp are top quality high grade amps, hand made by skilled individuals (the skill part is important), very picky about components. Orange started a distributor of those, and reduced quality to mass produced pcb mount low bidder jobs with underspec components, freeing up a lot of cash for advertising and endorsements. They used to use pretty similar circuits to Matamp, some still do, but Fender style sections used less components for more knobs so cheaper, so they've headed toward that.
Depending on what is in a Bassman 300, Nick of Dunwich amps (as mentioned earlier) might be able to do a properly made equivalent, but it might be full of ICs and such, got a fair waiting list at this point. Chances are it has a ton of unnecessary 'features' that will go out of stock in the long run. Capacitors big enough to fit in the clamps is hardest thing to source in my job of restoring 40 year old nicely made amps, everything else is off the shelf new, because they were made to last through maintenance instead of being disposable. The basic bassman circuit is pretty simple and common across amps, really a matter of what about it you like.
With all due respect 80% or better of musicians could care less if their amp was handcrafted by Britts or stuffed by a machine, sounds good and reliable for 20-30 years. 
Mr. Foxen
Commercial User
Yeah, the reliable for 30-40 years is the important part. There are ways to make it happen, PCB mounting everything is not one of them, they last for the warranty period, if you are lucky. Fairly sure Nick isn't a Brit too.
Mr. Foxen
Commercial User
Know how dentists tell you to look after your teeth even though if everyone did, they'd be out of a job?
My 69 SVT is PCB and still works. Seen plenty of others as well. Seen lots of 20 year old SLM SVT's out in the field as well. Sorry...I think that's silly to reject amps because of PCB's. Maybe they're not as easy to fix as P2P, but that's not my problem. I can find plenty of techs who will work on them.
Power tubes on PCB's is not the best idea IMO either but I also see PCB mounted power tube amps surviving very well 30 years and more. RoHS compliant would be a bigger deciding factor.
Might add that RoHS compliant also adds major reliability concerns for P to P.
Might add that RoHS compliant also adds major reliability concerns for P to P.
Mr. Foxen
Commercial User
PTP is harder to fix than PCB. PCB isn't the problem with badly made amps, its being badly made. Plenty of Matamp are PCB. Don't confuse criticism of badly made PCB amps with criticism of PCB.
Mr. Foxen
Commercial User
Its pots and jacks fixed straight to pcb that bust most often. Probably see more issue with PCB mount preamp valves, probably due to people swapping pre valves more often and pulling out the joints. PCB mounting still with a chassis connection for strength is good enough, since that is the issue, relying on pcb solder for structure.
Can't help but notice you didn't mention Traynor (which should be relatively easy to find in your neck of the woods). The YBA 300 is well worth your consideration.
